The looming Gaza cease-fire

It is Israel, not the resistance, that is on the back foot

One hundred days into its war of extermination against northern Gaza, Israel’s occupation army could have been expected to achieve its objectives by now: total control on the ground and expulsion off all the inhabitants. But things have gone very differently. Israeli military casualties have steadily risen, causing growing disaffection in the army command and prompting it to withdraw two brigades to reduce losses.

Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida re-emerged on Sunday to issue a statement that underlined this reality. He said resistance fighters were inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, with ten troops killed and dozens injured in the previous 72 hours. On Monday, the Qassam brigades reported 25 Israeli casualties in a complex operation in Rafah.

The successes scored by the resistance are not only due its steadfastness, but also the creative new combat tactics it has developed, especially in reconnaissance and laying ambushes for Israeli troops, tanks, and armoured vehicles. And while Israeli reservists have been refusing service in droves, the ranks of the resistance have swelled with thousands of new volunteer recruits.

Fifteen months into its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army, which boasts of being the world’s fifth most powerful, has yet to uncover 10% of Gaza’s underground tunnel network, has failed dismally to free Israel ‘hostages’ despite its massive intelligence resources, and been unable to reach Hamas’ weapons stores and workshops let alone its command centre.

Hamas never asked for a mere cease-fire in the US-sponsored talks held in Cairo and Doha. It is Israel’s settlers and military establishment who have been pressing in that direction because they have been exhausted by the government’s prolongation of the war and its failure to achieve its key objective: total victory over the resistance and the establishment of a collaborator government to run the Gaza Strip.

For the past 16 months we have been deluged with press reports that great progress has been made in the truce talks in Cairo and/or Doha and that a final draft is ready to be signed. In reality, these misleading statements were a ploy to gain time and provide the Israeli army with cover to continue its genocidal war in the hope of breaking the will of the resistance groups.

But they were well aware of this, and refused to back down from their core demands: a comprehensive cease-fire, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces, the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, the return of all displaced people, the resumption of humanitarian supplies, and an immediate start to reconstruction.

It is distressing, infuriating, and painful to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) try to burnish its collaborationist credentials at this time by cracking down on resistance in the West Bank, especially the killing and injury of dozens of activists in Jenin refugee camp. It thereby hopes to earn a few million dollars in blood money and be allowed to take over in the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas.

This is a pipedream. The Gaza Strip’s inhabitants would greet it and its forces with undiluted contempt. Gaza will only be run by its own, fighting people. Resistance will continue both there and in the West Bank against all the odds, and will ultimately emerge victorious with its head held high — with or without a cease-fire, and heedless of Trump’s threats to unleash “all hell”.

https://www.raialyoum.com/the-looming-gaza-cease-fire/